108 THE STONES OF VENICE CONSTRUCTION

an appearance of fixture, or definite place,*-we suspect it of motion, like an orb of heaven; and the second is, that the whole base, considered as the foot of the shaft, has no grasp nor hold: it is a club-foot, and looks too blunt for the limb,-it wants at least expansion, if not division.

§ 12. Suppose, then, instead of taking so much trouble with the member Y b, we save time and labour, and leave it a square block. X b must, however, evidently follow the pillar, as its condition is that it slope to the very base of the wall veil, and of whatever the wall veil becomes. So the corners of Y b will project beyond the circle of X b, and we shall have (Fig. 12) the profile d, the perspective appearance e, and the plan f. I am quite sure the reader likes e much better than he did b. The circle is now placed, and we are not afraid of its rolling away. The foot has greater expansion, and we have saved labour besides, with little loss of space, for the interval between the bases is just as great as it was before,-we have only filled up the corners of the squares.

But is it not possible to mend the form still further? There is surely still an appearance of separation between X b and Y b, as if the one might slip off the other. The foot is expanded enough; but it needs some expression of grasp as well. It has no toes. Suppose we were to put a spur or prop to X b at each corner, so as to hold it fast in the centre of Y b. We will do this in the simplest possible form. We will have the spur or small buttress, sloping straight from the corner of Y b up to the top of X b, and, as seen from above, of the shape of a triangle. Applying such spurs in Fig. 12, we have the diagonal profile at g, the perspective h, and the plan i.

§ 13. I am quite sure the reader likes this last base the best, and feels as if it were the firmest. But he must carefully distinguish between this feeling or imagination of the eye, and the real stability of the structure. That this real stability

* Yet more so than any other figure enclosed by a curved line; for the circle, in its relations to its own centre, is the curve of greatest stability. Compare § 20 of Chap. XX. [p. 269].

[Version 0.04: March 2008]